Friday, May 25, 2012

Scranton was declared a distressed city in 1992 under
Pennsylvania’s Act 47.1

Democratic Mayor Chris Doherty has been in charge of the
City of Scranton for ten years – a decade under which the city has been unable
to escape the designation. Democrat
turned Republican turned Democrat Mayor Jim Connors held the reins on the city
for the preceding ten years of financial trouble.

During his 2001 campaign as the endorsed Democrat for
Mayor, Doherty promised to not only escape Scranton’s distressed status, but
also reduce the wage tax by .1% each year.2 Doherty broke his promises.

Doherty also stated during the 2001 campaign, “you can't
be spending any more money than you bring in.”3 He hasn’t ever really taken his own
advice.

The Pennsylvania Economy League (PEL), acting in their
capacity as the city’s appointed Act 47 coordinator, released a revised
recovery plan dated 3/27/2012.4
The findings of the recovery plan have been largely unreported.

For example, as of 1 January 2012, the City of Scranton’s
long term debt was $122,080,101.5
According to the last census, 76,089 people lived in the Electric City –
so each of them owes $1,604.43 for Doherty’s long-term debt.

Scranton guarantees the debt of the Scranton Parking
Authority which currently owes at least $95.6 million.6 That means each resident of the city also
owes an additional $1,256.42 for the excesses of this authority whose members
are appointed by one person, Chris Doherty.

So, to square just the debt mentioned above, every
Scrantonian would have to cut a check for $2,860.85 to the city. And not everyone household, that’s every man,
woman and child that lives in the city.
Family of four? Your share is
$11,443.40.

The democratic leadership in the City of Scranton has
financially destroyed the city as they have in 12 other cities under a
distressed designation. Yes, the mayor
of every distressed city in the Commonwealth is a Democrat.

Scranton, like the other distressed cities spanning Penn’s
Woods, have a choice ahead of them. Many
will get the chance to make this critical choice next year. They can continue to embrace the Democratic
policies and politicians that have destroyed them or start electing Republicans. And please, not just any person with an R
after their name. They should elect Republicans
that will not raise taxes, will not increase spending, and will not sacrifice
the children of their community on an altar of debt. Republicans, who understand how to grow their
city out of debt and have a plan to do it.

Scranton, you have kicked the can down the road long enough. If you want leaders that will lead, start electing them. Otherwise, you have no one to blame but yourself for the
situation you are in.

Pennsylvania doesn’t just mine coal, it also has the
largest mining machinery and equipment manufacturing industry in the country.

Pennsylvania is also the fourth largest producer of coal
in the nation, using it to provide 54% of our own electricity generation and
exporting it our coal to 30 different states.

Coal is still King in Pennsylvania.

Any student of economics will tell you that when you
increase the cost of doing business, the cost of the product that business
produces will also go up. Another basic
lesson of economics is that if you make it harder for a business to do
business, it will kill jobs.

Need proof of the effect of regulation on prices? Fox
News reports that the company that manages Pennsylvania’s energy grid, PJM
Interconnection, held their 2015 capacity auction. This was the first auction that incorporates
President Obama’s new coal regulations.
The price per megawatt of energy went from $16 pre-regulation to $167
post-regulation. That will translate
into dramatically higher energy prices for Pennsylvanians.

But, if you ask the Obama Administration about their
regulations, you might not get a straight answer. A leaked internal Obama
Administration report confirms this.
When the “real world” numbers came out about just how many jobs the
Obama Administration would strangle with his coal-killer regulations, according
to a transcript, they asked that the calculations be changed, that they
“pretend.”

President Obama understands exactly what damage he is
doing to Pennsylvania and other coal-producing states. He acknowledged as much when he spoke about
his war on coal a few years ago. In the
video above, he very clearly states that his policy will both bankrupt the coal
industry and cause energy prices to “necessarily skyrocket.” Based on the new prices for 2015, it looks
like we finally have a promise kept by the Obama White House.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Did Mitt Romney do enough to stop the Mountain Meadows
Massacre of 1857? Before voters go to
the polls in November, shouldn’t they really ask themselves that question? Sure, Romney’s only 65 years old but, could
he have done more to prevent this massacre that occurred over 150 years ago?

That is the lunacy of the left.

In a thinly veiled attempt to talk about anything other
than the Obama Economy, the Washington
Post ran a story detailing the hard feelings that still exist in Arkansas
against Mormons because of their participation in a massacre in 1857.

The Romney connection?
He’s a Mormon. Because he belongs
to the same faith as the people who did this, people that probably died
something like 75 years before he was even born, WaPo asks if it will hurt his
chances in Arkansas.

Surely Arkansas voters won’t care about why gas has
doubled, why unemployment has been sky-high, or why our national debt has
increased by over $5 trillion under President Obama’s leadership. Instead, they will go to polls in November
and vote strictly on the Massacre of 1857 – an incident that occurred nearly
a century before Mitt Romney was even born.

150+ year-old stories about religion aren’t exactly news so
you are never going to convince me that this story wasn’t sitting on a shelf
somewhere waiting for the appropriate time to be published.

So, we are left with the questions “why Arkansas?” and “why
now?” It’s too easy to dismiss this as
just another attempt by the Obama campaign of making Romney seem “weird.”

Is the media so afraid of a repeat
of West Virginia, where a current federal inmate almost beat Obama in the Primary
from his jail cell in Texas, that they would see fit to advance this kind of garbage
to salvage the Obama Campaign?

What is certain is that Obama has a record that he should
be running on and he isn’t. Instead, his
allies in the media are offering up 150+ year-old stories about religion in the
middle of an economic crisis. Is it any
wonder we are still suffering dire financial times?

Thursday, May 17, 2012

How does it feel to finally have a month of work under
your belt where the product of your labors actually goes into your own pocket
instead of Uncle Sam’s?

April 17, 2012 marked Tax Freedom Day, the day
when you have finally worked enough just to pay your taxes. Today, being May 17, 2012, means that you
have finally worked enough this year to put one month of your wages towards
yourself, your family, or however else you might like to spend your money. The
first 107 days of 2012 were spent working for the government.

Tax Day in 2013, will be on Monday, April 15, but there
is another tax day that should be relevant to everyone in 2013 – January 1.